DONG

The painter Liu Xiaodong invites Jia Zhang-ke to film him at work. The first stop is Fengjie on the Yangtze, where the city is being demolished for the Three Gorges Dam: Liu paints the demolition workers, bare-chested men dismantling walls in the heat. The second stop is Bangkok, where he paints a group of women working in brothels. Jia observes not only the painter but also follows his subjects into their surroundings. “Dong” (China 2006) was made alongside Jia’s feature film “Still Life”, which is set in the same place and won the Golden Lion in Venice the same year.

The documentary is conceived as a companion piece to that feature film, sharing its setting, its figures and its outlook: an interest in people whose way of life is disappearing before their eyes. “Dong” premiered in Venice in 2006 and later screened in Toronto. It was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2007 in the Spezial Dokumente section.

Shown at the 2007 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2007 · Film Archive